The present application relates generally to the field of side impact airbags.
Side impact airbags (SAB) are deployed on the outboard side of a passenger of a vehicle to cushion the torso and/or head and/or pelvis of the passenger in a side impact event. Currently, there are two solutions for increasing effective loft, or thickness, in side airbags for improved energy management during a side impact event.
In standard fore/aft deploying two dimensional side airbags, the effective thickness of the airbag can be increased by increasing the overall perimeter area and thereby increasing the overall volume of the cushion. Also, the geometry of the airbag can be adjusted to increase the effective thickness by ensuring that the inflated airbag has a more spherical or cylindrical shape. The cross car width may be controlled, and/or limited by, the amount of vertical and forward shrinkage once the cushion is fully inflated. However, the increased volume of such an airbag requires a larger inflator output to achieve a desired pressure in the deployment window.
In other airbags, the perimeter seam of the airbag can be placed in the cross car direction to increase loft or thickness. This is an effective means of increasing the loft but in this case the forward coverage and cushion trajectory during deployment can be compromised since the SAB initially deploys laterally and forward trajectory is exclusively controlled by interaction with the environment in which it is deployed.
In both cases, energy during a vehicle side impact event is managed by cushion thickness and cushion pressure.